Eyes Can Tell a Thousand Words
by Miss Whoniverse
Summary: There's this girl. She has a pretty cool power, she does some pretty cool things, and Magneto's lot want her. What could happen then? :O
1. Chapter 1

"She looks kinda... dead..." said Kitty nervously.

"Nah, look, she's breathing," murmured Peter softly, reaching out to touch the girl's arm, but Logan grabbed his wrist instantly.

"Don't touch," muttered Logan, watching the form on the ground. "And shh."

Scott, Logan, Kitty, Peter, Bobby, Gene, Rogue, and Storm were arranged around the curled body of a fourteen or fifteen year old girl.

X Minutes Ago X

They had all been fleshing out the mapping of a city block where a new base was to be set up near where Magneto and his lot were supposedly running their syndicate from. Checking out various warehouses to buy or rent out, they were travelling in groups of two when some old, faint remnants of an alarm klaxon system started to ring where Logan and Rogue were looking through a large warehouse on the fringe of a shipping containment area. Swarming to the source of the sounds, distant roars could be heard, and a metallic screech which effectively silenced the sirens... and then nothing.

Pausing directly around the corner from the spluttering and now-dead klaxon, Logan held out a restraining arm for Rogue, and as he carefully eased his head around the corner he caught sight of Toad and Mystique crouched over an unidentifiable, struggling form.

Rogue poked her head around for a second, then jerked back and quickly paged a distress signal for help, to draw the others to the scene, and within seconds a heavy wind started to blow and electricity crackled in the sky as a warning from Storm to whoever was threatening them. Rogue silently thanked the fact that Storm and Scott were the closest team and would be there soon; and that Storm thought to act so quickly. It was a handy thing to have intelligent people in your team.

She slipped off her gloves, just in case; stuffing them in her pocket, and slipped through a gap in the shipping containers to go around the back of the group assaulting whatever the form was.

Logan climbed silently onto the roof of the container and peered over the lip, repressing a gasp of shock as he saw what was unfolding right below him. He was torn between attacking the enemies, and watching in horrified fascination.

A slender teenage girl was being pinned down by the neck by Toad. As her struggles weakened, Toad gingerly let go slightly; waited; then drew back. Mystique was inspecting the now-unconscious girl's skin.

Moments ago, it had been almost shiny – covered in rippling, armoured scales in a bloodred colour, with a black tinge to them. Now, her skin looked as though it had creases in the shape of scales; and even as he watched, her skin smoothed out and she looked utterly... normal.

Apparently Rogue had seen enough, for he noticed from the corner of his eye that a small silver canister was rolling towards the group, and he faintly heard Rogue's retreating footsteps. Staring at the object for a second, he identified it just in time, leaping back and throwing his whole head between his knees as the flash-bang grenade went off with... well, with a flash. And a bang.

Temporarily blind and deaf, Mystique and Toad blundered around, completely defenceless as Cyclops hit them both on the head efficiently.

"Excellent," he said smugly as they collapsed. "How easy."

"Yes," said Storm with disappointment. "I was hoping for a bit of-- who is _that_?"

"That's what I want to know," said Rogue softly, crouching now next to the girl as everyone else started swarming into the scene. "You guys didn't see what she just did... her skin... it was all... wow."

"Exactly," smirked Logan.

X Now X

"Well, I think we should get her back to the Professor, he can assess her skills. I mean; she's obviously a mutant-" started Logan authoritatively; just as the girl's eyes snapped open.

Everyone fell still and utterly silent, watching her carefully. Her eyes were golden-green, shocking in their luminosity, and her gaze flicked unconcernedly from one person to another. Most of the people looking at her were staring straight into her eyes, shocked at the metallic, swirling colour. She nearly smiled.

Seeming to decide that she was in the same place as before and was no longer being assaulted, she moved her arm, watching for their reactions. When nobody moved, she got up fluidly and brushed herself off.

"Thanks."

Her voice was calm, unconcerned, and fluid, reminisce of her movements. As she started to walk away, Rogue reached out with a gloved hand, holding her shoulder. The girl looked unmoved, like someone who could defend themself but chose not to.

"Yes?"

"You're one of us," said Rogue. "Don't you want to come and be safe? Why were those two attacking you – don't you want to get away from people like them? Do you know what you are?"

"Slow down, woman," muttered Logan under his breath, but they all still looked warily at this mysterious girl for answers. She cocked her head at them all, those once again startling eyes boring into each one of them.

"It doesn't matter," she said softly. "Yes. I know what I am. I know what you are. I know who they are – and they're gone, by the way."

As everyone span towards where Toad and Mystique had been unconscious, the girl turned swiftly and walked away as the X-Men made various sounds of shock and annoyance which were directed at the now-vacated and slightly bloodstained spot where the enemies had been lying.

Kitty was the first one to glance back, and she sighed as she saw the solitary figure of the girl walking away, head bowed. _I bet she's lonely. I bet she's alone, and she's hunted... and I bet that secretly, she's scared._

**I know it wasn't particularly long or anything, but as first chapters go, I thought it was okay. Did you?**

**Now, this is my first X-Men fic, so I'm not familiar with the rates of reviews and such. I know you probably hear this all the time, but don't resist dropping one, even if it's just to complain at me... I'm one of those people who gets disheartened when work gets no response. Even just one review is a very cheerful thing – someone who is probably on the other side of the world read my story and smiled.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Just for clarification, Xavier is still alive, and it's a little AU I guess. Some of the events from the movies didn't unfold... I guess it's mostly post the first movie, but with some characters you meet later in the movies.**

**If that makes sense. :)**

Wandering around alleys during the night is never a good idea, no matter what city you are in – and it's not like the girl was in a particularly nice one.

She was used to the prickling on the back of her neck. A finely tuned sense for danger was necessary for someone like her... someone with an all-too familiar story. Parents discover mutant abilities, parents freak out, parents force child away, parents detach emotion... child is alone.

That said, it did seem a little odd this time. Normally someone following a pretty young girl through dark streets during the night were less than discreet. Either they revealed themselves quickly; overestimating their strength, or they tried to follow until they thought they had cornered their prey. This time, however, she was having a difficult time pinpointing the source of the tiny sounds following her. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled again and she shivered, a deep and vibrating shiver from the base of her gut that ran up her spine – she had to force it down and keep the scales from creeping out.

_Just keep going_, she thought coolly. _Walk him to a dead end and get him there...._

While that was good in theory, she immediately regretted turning into the dead end alley as the sounds grew closer and the horrible smell filtered into her nose. Like a human, but horribly animalistic too; the smell made the shivers come back and she struggled inwardly to maintain her composure, turning swiftly to face the assailant she felt would be standing there.

She was right. There he was, in all his glory – a tall, imposing figure with long and shaggy hair...- and that god forsaken _smell_. It was something that repelled her strongly, her own animal instincts warning her to run from him. He was dangerous.

She could phase... but in the seconds between one form and another, she was defenceless. If he was linked to the others who were attacking her all the time now, then he had the darts in his sleeves like they all did. She remembered the toad man who grazed her neck with it earlier... even just a graze had her down and out for at least ten minutes. Imagine a whole dartload....

Her mind jumped back to where she was, and she noted his advance. He was taking strong, sure steps towards her. He didn't speak and he didn't draw any weapons. She watched him for a few seconds and as his advance continued, she took a small step back to demonstrate wariness. This wasn't a human battle, it was a very animal encounter.

He stopped as she stepped back, baring sharp teeth – two of them that she could see were fangs. The scary part for her was the smile that crept onto his lips, moments before he struck.

Leaping forwards with incredible speed, he flew towards her - the roar she had come to love was already tearing from her throat and rumbling defensively as she dropped to the ground, flat as she could. He shot over her, landing against the wall with his feet and jumping off cleanly. She rolled over and jumped up, bolting for the opening to the alley, scales rippling and burning her skin as they shot out all over her body, and then....

... then the claws closed around her throat and jerked her back, jarring her neck and flinging her back down the alley. She wasn't able to quell her choked yell before it escaped, and she heard him growl his pleasure at the sound. Spitting out a few flecks of blood, she jumped once again to her feet, scales fully out and ready to go. She stopped the next part of the phase that would allow her to escape on her wings because it left her completely at his mercy for the second's delay.

"You have beautiful eyes," he murmured gutturally with an accent, his own eyes gleaming with the thrill of the fight. "Let me see them cry."

She was too pissed off by this remark to raise her arms quickly enough in defence as he flattened her. She kicked upwards, but he was extremely heavy, and as he rolled off her she felt several ribs crack – she wasn't able to hold back a scream.

"That's better," he leered, hoisting her up by the neck with one hand. She managed to tense her neck muscles quickly before his hand closed around her neck, to prevent her windpipe from collapsing.

He slipped one of the damnable darts into his other hand, and pushing her rather unceremoniously into a wall, he thumbed her head effortlessly out of the way, exposing her neck even as she kicked weakly. "It's been too easy. I hoped your little lizard trick might make it more interesting for me, but no – how about those tears, now, you little dragon witch?"

She gasped and looked him in the eye as the dart went in... then looked past him, unfocussing slightly, and smiled. "Who... needs... dragons... when you have... rescuers?"

A red light flashed, a silver body gleamed, a girl fell to the ground, an animal man was sliced by metal claws, and electricity crackled in the sky.


	3. Chapter 3

**There's a bit of dispute about the spelling of 'Gene' but this is how I've seen it spelled mostly (and to be honest I like this spelling, hehe) so I'm going to spell it this way.**

**Short chapter – I'm sorry :)**

She cracked her eyes open warily, hand automatically snapping up to pluck the circular pads off her collarbone.

"Whoa," said a voice near her foot in surprise. "Look at her eyes – they're all green and gold and...-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know," said a gruff, bored voice. "Amazing. Now, what's wrong with her, and what's her mutation?"

"You know I can't figure out the mutation," said the other voice softly as it moved towards her face, speaking as though she wasn't there. "But she's just been drugged up a little. It'll wear off; I think it already pretty much has."

"You could look into her mind," suggested the man, and the girl resisted a smirk.

"Firstly, that's wrong," said the woman airily, "and secondly... well... I may have already tried... er, she has a very strong mind. She pushed me out without any effort. It was... annoying."

"What, you could communicate with her? What did she say?"

"I didn't say I communicated. She didn't make any sound... she had no thoughts – or, well, she obviously had thoughts, but she was keeping them from me."

The two conversed as though the girl wasn't even there, which both annoyed and intrigued her.

A tall, redheaded woman moved into the girl's vision, and the girl frowned, softly at first. The woman has the air of someone who cared about others' wellbeing but had something dark inside her – and the darkness didn't like the girl.

Frowning deeply now, she sat up abruptly, carelessly wrenching the rest of the circular stickies off her neck and face.

"Whoa, whoa," said the male – Wolverine – detaching himself quickly from his leaning spot on the wall and moving towards her as she shoved a protesting Gene out of her way. "Easy, there – where do you think you're g- whoa there, stop-!"

The girl had bared her teeth – ridiculously sharp all of a sudden – and her pupils contracted into thin, slit shaped strokes within her almost glowing irises. Scales ruptured from her skin all over and he saw the beginnings of spines dashing from her back. As she growled gutturally at him, all tolerance of the strange situations she found herself in gone, he backpedalled frantically, claws slicing from his hands automatically, and he held his scythe-bearing hands up in front of himself warily.

"Okay, okay, calm down, I don't want to hurt you, I just want to know where you're going-" he said hastily, deciding he'd rather be safe than sorry (for once) since being sliced to ribbons by a teenage girl would not be good for his ego.

"I'm going home."

"How do you think you're going to get there? You don't know where you are – do you even _have _a home?" He quickly silenced himself, cursing the word-vomit. If she attacked him, he'd either have to fight back or let her win... and attacking a little girl - god, what was the world coming to?

"I don't mean a _house_, you fool," she hissed angrily. "I mean the sky. I'm sick of being abducted and attacked and treated like an interesting experiment. Go and die in a hole; if you would be so kind."

"Um...-" he was having trouble understanding the situation. A teenage girl was threatening to kill him, threatening to fly away, asking him to die for her benefit... basically being irritable and violent. For a mutant and reptilian teenager, she was just so... normal.

"I'm also sick of the banter," she continued calmly. "Don't follow me."

She moved again towards the window, and he regained his composure quickly, jumping in front of her. "Look, you can drop the 'tough guy' look. It's really unnecessary – I'm not going to hurt you, girlie, you don't need to run-"

"Ha! You think I'm scared of you _hurting_ me?" she seemed genuinely amused by this, and as her body continued to morph, what looked almost like... _wings_... started to blossom from her shoulder blades. "Look, I'm tired of this conversation. You're an idiot – I'm not being a tough guy, I'm not afraid of you, I'm not a little kid – and I'm _NOT _a 'girlie'." Getting more and more worked up, she grew suddenly larger and more streamlined, falling onto all fours, back legs inverted so that her knees faced backwards.

She had a tail – wings. Fangs - she was a dragon. A _dragon_. What?

They stared at each other. She stood there, sleek and smooth and supreme. Her eyes were still the shocking green-gold, but looked somehow more appropriate on a dragon. Her scales were a deep red, covered in a smoky black tinge. The contrast between her eye colour and her scales was a bit unorthodox, but somehow looked right on her. Baring her fangs slowly, she turned towards the window and flared her wings.

She wasn't particularly large – she wasn't quite his height, but still seemed sleek and strong. Somehow, she was slender, even though she was a freaking _dragon_.

He thought absently, while rooted to the ground in shock; that he probably should have already come to the conclusion that she was a morph - dragoness morph.

Realising too late that her tail was about to strike him in the head, he didn't block in time, and as his head THWACK-ed against the ground, he saw her launch herself through the window, setting sun glinting darkly against her scales. As her form streaked upwards smoothly and the darkness billowed into his vision, he laughed at himself quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter is pretty much all flashbacks and memories, to flesh out things for you to explain stuff :)**

**Reviews always welcome – although I admit to being pretty bad at giving those out myself, so if you're lazy and don't bother then I can't in all good conscience blame you. xD**

Was there a way to describe what it felt like to fly? No, there really wasn't. And there never could be – one has to fly before one knows what flying is like.

"It's like describing a colour to a blind person," wondered the girl out loud as she floated incredibly high in the sky. There was a hell of a lot of nothing between her and the ground, and she remembered how scared she'd been of the sheer emptiness the first time she found herself miles in the air without a clear recollection of getting there.

She recalled vaguely that she'd left her home because her parents thought she had the Death – her skin erupted in red and black shapes without any warning soon after she saw the body of her best friend who had been struck down by the plague, and they cast her out in fear – not realising that it was the emotional impact of her friend's body rather than any disease that made her change.

She was about seven years old at that time, years and years ago, and they tossed her onto the street. She remembered making her way into a typical alleyway in the London area she was from at the time, and the changes refused to stop, getting less and less controllable in the space of about ten minutes. Soon she was in a small, young body she didn't recognise, and almost unable to control the sudden and unbearable urge to attack the small boy who wandered after her into the alley, she did the only other thing that her body told her to – she took to the sky.

That was all in the past. She remembered getting used to the body, even though she cried in the privacy of her new head, and she hunted in deserted areas, sometimes picking off a small sheep from a farm if she was in a populated area. People saw her sometimes and only thought she was a demon bringing yet more bad luck upon their families... who wanted that?

The decision to leave Europe came years later. She hit about fifteen years of age (by her rough estimate) and had grown since the beginning – her dragon self continued to develop at a rapid rate while she was in it, but when she was able to return to her birthform she found it different to how she left it – once she stayed as a dragon on a long flight around Scottish forest areas and returned to her birthform to find her hair had grown, her nails were long, she had developed in the breast department, and she was taller.

"I never even found out about my eye colour until I spent more time in my human form and people stared at me," chuckled the girl to herself as she scared a curious high-flying eagle away from her tail. "I always thought there was something wrong, and that they could tell there was something strange about me."

Anyway, the actual decision to leave Europe was only reached because she accidentally did so – she had gone for a long flight over the ocean, following a large boat far below, and when she decided to fly back because she was getting hungry after hours of gliding, she discovered that the boat hadn't been travelling in a straight line and Europe was no longer behind her. She had no idea where she was, and panicked herself quickly as she flew insanely fast to catch back up with the boat she'd left in another direction when she'd tried to locate land. Finding it had changed course again, she sighted it far away in another direction on the horizon.

She flew to follow it, suddenly realising just how hungry she was now that she had nowhere to go and didn't know where she was. She wasn't sure if she was at the same ship, because it was so far off where she thought it should have been, but as she saw the familiar crates and redheaded driver, she simply decided she had an awful sense of direction... but it was the ocean after all.

Food was a bit of a problem, as her little lifeline far below didn't have any signs on it telling her where she was going, not that it would have helped since she didn't know how far away she was from anything and how long it would be since she could get food. Her two options were to sneakily land on board and pretend to be a stowaway, or teach herself to fish.

She hated seafood.

However, she hated people more, so fishing it was.

When she ended up in America a good several months later (after a lot of stops in undesirable places in various parts of the world she didn't think she'd fit into very well, like Australia) she decided to stop there, thoroughly sick of the seafaring, travelling life. The boat sailed away again without her, and she forced herself not to follow it as her instincts told her to while she crouched silently beneath the docks, eyes planted on what had been her navigational lifeline for months.

She changed back into her human body later on and pickpocketed sneakily, gathering money enough to buy herself a lot of food that was not and had nothing to do with fish.

Glorious, glorious food....

Once she was back in her human body, she lived on the streets again, pickpocketing to keep herself fed, and when she couldn't take money off people she thought had enough to live on, she morphed and went fishing again, as much as it annoyed her to eat fish again.

Since the months of journeying when she didn't change form at all and barely slept, she never aged anymore in her human form, even with time. She stayed as that fifteen year old girl with her slim proportions and amazing eyes, never changing. Timeless.

Not too bad a fate, when you thought about the possibilities of being a dragon too.

Anyway... one day, she had a run in with someone who she had never forgotten.

"That man and his eyes," she whispered to herself as she rustled her way into a clearing in the middle of the forest and delicately picked her way through the undergrowth to snap at a few small animals. Possums were bony, but tasted surprisingly good.

The memory flooded her as she thought back.

She'd been trying her luck in a street full of wealthy looking people mingling, and she slid her hand into a man's pocket quietly, thinking he was unlikely to notice since his jacket had a hell of a lot of pockets, but when he grabbed her wrist without looking and twisted her into a side street in one smooth motion, she freaked out instantly.

Ten minutes later, she was having coffee and talking animatedly with someone who called himself Remy Le Beau.

After a short and amusing conversation, he stared at her through his tinted glasses for a full minute, suddenly silent. She stared back, intrigued by this strange person, until he suddenly leaned forward and flicked his glasses up for a split second. His eyes were an indescribable shock... to most people.

She held her ground and stared calmly back, appreciating the glimpse. He smiled at her lack of reaction, and leaned back again.

"You're different too, Cherie," he had said in a low, amused voice. "It's good, is it not?"

He'd walked out abruptly, flicking her nose as he rose and departed, and she only ever saw him once more, caught in a deadly fight full of bright light against a clawed man in a dark alley. She watched in bemused surprise from above as the fight raged, but as things started to blow up she took flight again, not feeling that it would be wise to assist him since she didn't know his cause or whether he'd recognise her as a dragon.

"Anyway, it's the clawed man I'm interested in," she murmured to herself as she morphed back to her birthform to pluck a beady berry from a twisted vine. "To see him again after all this time, timeless, just like me." She chewed the berry thoughtfully, before stretching and nosing around for somewhere she could curl up to sleep. "The clawed man with the same Wolverine tag he had all those years ago."


	5. Chapter 5

She didn't think she could have been more surprised if an elephant walked out of the coffee shop.

It was Remy. It was definitely that man. She was walking along, minding her own business, possibly stealing money from a few rich looking people, when he walked out of a coffee shop and headed away from where she was now standing in shock.

It was definitely him. He looked identical to how he had looked years and years ago – his glasses were even the same.

"Doesn't _anyone _age anymore?" she said loudly and rather by accident. Reacting in less than half a second, she was covering up her faux pas - as the passers-by were almost halfway turned to stare she had assumed the image of 'normal American teenager' and was laughing into the phone she'd plucked daintily from a businessman's pocket. Only because the man had just parked his brand new car with his brand new built in GPS system shining through the window and his mass of cords and phones and laptops and technology cluttering his seats – she was sure he could do without one phone.

"I know, right? Bella's like _so _clever," she flashed a winning smile at a middle aged man chuckling indulgently at her, and she winked at a teenage boy, still sporting that smile. "And yeah – yeah... yeah, I know! Edward... oh my god, you know?"

She resisted the urge to vomit as she sped up to get closer to Remy's retreating back. Nobody seemed at all surprised that a beautiful teenager was gushing over some stupid popular romance book. The only possible surprise to anyone who thought too much about it was that she was able to read at all - teenagers these days, reading books? The girl knew that wasn't likely. She herself had been a bookworm when she was younger. Her parents had been able to afford her education, as they were rich – even though she was a girl she was taught to read and write and do maths.

Bidding goodbye to the imaginary person she was talking to, she slipped the phone into her pocket and overtook the man in one smooth movement. Bumping into him discreetly and then looking up, she frowned slightly and donned an inquisitive and questioning expression which didn't at all fit the "Oh, I'm sorry!" that she provided.

Her satisfaction at the smooth move mounted as he looked down at her. It _was _definitely him, and he actually stopped walking and stared at her, frowning slightly and completely distracted from whatever it was he was doing before she knocked him.

"Is... do I know you, petite fille?" he said bluntly, staring her down – straight at her eyes. She couldn't see his but she knew they were bright red and black behind the glasses.

"Excuse-moi," she said indignantly. "'Petite fille'? Non!"

"Parlez-vous français?" he responded in surprise, his voice enchanting without any effort.

"Non."

"Quoi?" The hints of a smile crept onto his face at her response.

"I didn't know I did, either."

"Interesting... how is it that you are as young and beautiful as you were so long ago?" He certainly didn't beat around the bush – he just got straight to the point.

"I could ask you the same question, oui?" she smiled and made sure to glance into the bright behind his head so that her eyes shone fully. "Au revoir, monsieur!"

"Wait! Er... ça va?"

She smirked, didn't reply, and turned to walk away, simply to see if he was intrigued enough to follow her. She wanted to know if his previous business was more important to him than finding out about some mysterious girl who he'd met years ago who was the exact same age as before.

_I should have picked his pocket, then it would have been exactly the same as last time_, she realised, mentally kicking herself. _That would have been perfect!_

Hearing his hurried footsteps to catch up with her, she turned back to him and grinned. "Shall we go for coffee? Actually... I don't like coffee. Shall we go for hot chocolate?"

"I have just come from the coffee shop," he said wryly, "but okay then. Do you have money this time or are you going to try to steal from me, mademoiselle?"

"I thought about it," she laughed back. He surprised her then by hooking arms with her and steering her firmly across the road towards a small, tucked-into-a-corner little place.

"You have some explaining to do, Radieux-Yeux," he murmured to her as he bowed her into a seat, mischievous smile on his face.

**El gasp! This very short chapter makes up for the long one last time :) Review? :0**


	6. Chapter 6

"I'm not telling you unless you tell me," she said stubbornly.

"Mademoiselle-" began Remy wryly, but she held up a hand to stop him.

"Nope," she said. "Not a chance. If you want to know why I haven't grown then you have to tell me why you haven't grown."

"Perhaps I have aged as normal but simply still look as radiant as ever, oui?"

"Of course, of course," she smirked. "I suppose we're at a stalemate then. Now what?"

"Stalemate? Do you play chess?"

"It's just an expression... but yeah, I do. Why, do you?" She hoped he did, it might be another thing she could beat him at.

"Oui! I was very good when I was younger, I was in a school group for it long ago before I... before... well... before... well, it was a long time ago, fille," he finished with a dull tone, the enthusiasm he started the sentence with was gone.

She watched him silently for several minutes while he looked at his intertwined hands. The silence stretched – not awkward silence. Just silence. Sensing he might be about to start questioning her again, she spoke.

"Ça va?"

"Trés bien. Et toi?" he responded automatically.

"Look, I really don't know French," she shrugged. "I used to live in Europe, so I must have picked it up there while I was travelli-... I mean... when... when I had French class at school."

What the hell was that? She was a brilliant liar, she _never _stammered or got confused. So what happened? Either some part of her wanted to tell this strange man her secrets, or she was just a bit bewitched by his charm.

Pfft. Bewitched... not her; never. Some of the guys who had made passes at her got off easy with a stony glare or an eyeroll, and some who tried to do more than that were found unconscious the next day by screaming pedestrians running from the bloody body.

"Cherie, we really need to find out a bit more about each other," he said slowly. "It would seem that we are both ageless, so chances are we'll be seeing each other frequently. Unless one of us dies, of course, and no matter which it is, I would be quite disappointed. I'm oddly attached to you for having met you only on duex occasions, Cherie." He bestowed a winning wink on her and she laughed at him, while thinking to herself how strange it was that she felt attached to him as well.

As the conversation about modern medicine compared to old medicine started, and they warmed up to each other (and ordered second rounds of hot chocolate), another visitor decided to show up unannounced.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" rumbled a voice from beside them. They both turned very quickly, leaning around the table closer to each other and further away from the voice – which promptly laughed and its owner plonked down beside them. "Aren't you two cute," Wolverine drawled sarcastically, chewing the end of his cigar.

"Oh. It's you. Er..." said the girl, glancing from man to man. Stony looks were being exchanged between them, and she held her hands up. "I think it's time I took my leave... you guys seem a bit... angry. I mean, you blew him up with playing cards, what the hell was that all about?"

Making conversation as she pushed her chair back to stand, she accidentally mentioned the night from years ago. Both men stopped looking at each other and turned to stare at her in surprise.

Realising her slip, she stood up quickly and moved to step back, mumbling something about 'but, you know, I don't know about that anyway', but each of them shot out a hand and yanked her roughly back into her seat, pulling her and the seat back towards the table.

It wasn't violent and she didn't feel threatened, but she had the feeling they wouldn't be afraid to hold on tighter if she tried to get away, which only made her feel like she should _try_ to get away.

Shaking off the unexplained fact that the girl knew them both from a long time ago, Wolverine spoke. "I'm here to talk to you, kid. Bomb guy can run along to wherever he left his playing cards," said Logan brusquely, but he was ignored by the other two – much to his irritation.

"Cherie, honestly, how do you know about things that should have happened long before you were born?" Remy frowned as he asked her, and Wolverine glanced at her to gauge her answer, still chewing his smoke unconcernedly.

"So... you're a dragon _and _apparently you live forever too? That's one hell of a mutation, girly," said Wolverine drily.

"She's a _what_ now-" interjected Remy quickly, but he was ignored by the other two.

"_Girlie_?" she repeated venomously, eyes glowing dangerously. "You should know by now that I get unnecessarily angry when people call me _girlie_ in any way, shape, or form-"

"Speaking of ways, shapes, and forms – dragon morph, huh? Immortal, too." Wolverine twiddled his thumbs boredly as he spoke.

"She doesn't look like a dragon to me-" muttered Remy quietly, still not being listened to.

"Hey, just because I can fly and all you can do is sprout claws," snapped the girl.

"How did you see that fight? That was _ages _ago, and you don't really look like the immortal type," he said mildly, inspecting his cigar.

"_Dra_gon... seriously...-" wondered Remy to himself, looking her up and down. He was being completely ignored.

"Yeah well you don't really look like the homosexual type, but hey, what you see isn't always what you get," she replied coolly. His eyes flicked up to hers for the first time and he frowned.

"Look, lil' girl, no need to get angry now-"

"LITTLE GIRL?" she shouted quietly (of course it's possible to shout quietly).

"That's right, little girl. Stop being so aggressive, you're just a teenage girl who is far too big for her little boots, okay?" Logan was getting a little pissed off by this arrogant kid. "You haven't got a place in the world yet and you should just learn to shut up, or you piss people off who are stronger than you."

"Are you TRYING to get yourself a free castration-" began the girl hotly. Remy's head flicked from one to the other warily, watching the exchange.

"See, kid, there you go again with the violence. Don't threaten people if you don't have the brawn to back it u-"

Suddenly Remy was knocked off his chair by flaring wings that came out of nowhere, and fire that wasn't there a second ago ripped at the wooden table - animalistic growls came from a man and a girl, and a cloaked man smiled as he watched from the back of the room as two people disappeared in a flash of flames and scales.


	7. Chapter 7

**It's been a long time. It's been a VERY long time, actually. I wonder if anybody is still following this story? Even if nobody reads I shall continue to write for my own enjoyment :)**

Logan and Remy skilfully slipped out of a back window as police barged in the front and still-screaming patrons assuaged them with tales of the 'massive brawl' and 'all these mutants'. The police were hopefully too busy with fearful evening shoppers to pursue them; if they'd noticed their exit at all.

"Where did she go?" hissed Remy in annoyance, punching Logan hard on the arm. Logan punched him back about twice as hard, knocking him off to the side a bit as they edged through the alleyway towards the back streets.

"How the hell would I know?" he responded. "Oh wait, yeah, no I have _lots_ of experience with where an immortal dragoness teenager goes at sundown, but I just can't figure it out this time, ain't that a bitch?" Remy was about to respond with something equally unhelpful and sarcastic when Logan shushed him.

"Can you smell something?"

"… Are you trying to be funny? Oh, let's be immature and make insinuations that the other has passed wind, hmm?" said Remy irritably, and Logan glared at him.

"I'm serious, I can smell something. It's probably nothing but it smells like that Sa"- he began, when a loud shout shot through the street in front of them from the opposite alleyway. They looked up at the same time – just in time to see the girl standing there in horror and pointing behind them.

"You should trust your nose more," snarled a voice, and their heads were bashed together. Remy took it harder and slumped to the ground with a muffled groan, while Logan shouted out and fell back the other way, rolling to his feet in a bit of a daze.

Turning in time to see Sabretooth's fist on a collision course with his head, he stumbled back. Just as he was about to be hit he was flattened by a hard, hot form, and Sabretooth leaped over him to avoid falling with the force of his missed punch. Logan groaned and put his head back on the ground, surrendering to the blackness eating away at his vision as his body tried to heal the gashes in his head and now chest.

The dragon rolled off Logan smoothly, screeching a grating protest at Sabretooth. He roared back in response and lunged. She reared back and snorted, half crouched, and far less timid in this form. She snarled and opened her maw threateningly. Light seemed to emanate from her throat and he realised too late – mid leap – what that meant.

That meant a _fire_breathing dragon. And that was never good.

As the flames erupted from her jaws and engulfed him he screamed out. His hair caught fire and he writhed, running furiously away from her and leaping down to roll the flames away. She bellowed out at him again and he, fearing another ignited assault, fled as fast as his burned limbs could carry him.

There was silence in the alley.

The dragon stood, swaying slightly, and she looked around at where Remy and Logan were stirring. She tried to take a step towards them, but faltered and almost fell as she felt the immense fatigue.

"That was nasty and great, fille," murmured Remy tiredly; very slowly sitting up with the help of the wall. "You should do that more often, but please not to me."

"Yeah, that was one hell of an attack," said Logan approvingly, jumping up energetically. His body allowed him to recover from a bashed up brain far more quickly than Remy, who was still holding his own head in his hands and sitting against the wall.

She didn't respond. Logan narrowed his eyes, and then jumped forward quickly as she made a small sound and tipped over sideways. He didn't quite get to her in time, though, and there was a sickening crunch as her foreleg got stuck against her wing as she fell and it broke – loudly.

Remy made a half-horrified and half-sickened groaning noise and tried to get up to help. It was slow progress, but he stumbled over and sank down to his knees next to where Logan was trying frantically to lift her own weight off the broken leg.

"What happened?" mumbled Remy.

"Sabretooth bashed our heads together. Fat lot of help you were; out like a light." Remy was about to protest to this with something along the lines of 'you have a thick skull' when Logan amended. "To be fair though he almost had me too. She flattened me out of the way and set him on fire, then just… passed out."

He started rolling her over, and they saw that she was reverting to her birthform. Even as Logan held her up she shrank down to a smaller, more fragile stature than Remy seemed to remember her being – but maybe that was just because she seemed far less threatening when she was unconscious and broken-limbed.

They watched as her scales retracted and faded out, and it was all over quickly. To anybody walking past, it would look as though two grown men had assaulted, broken the arm of, and knocked out a defenceless young girl.

"What should we do now?" asked Remy grudgingly after a time. He didn't like this 'Wolverine' guy, but he felt attached to the girl, particularly after learning she'd likely saved their lives by intervening.

"I want to take her back to the Professor. She should be somewhere safe; Magneto obviously wants her for himself for some reason, and whatever reason it is won't be good for her or us. He's a prick like that."

"Plus she is injured," Remy added. "She needs medical care, and not somewhere where she will be discovered as a mutant by humans, like in a hospital."

"She freaked out last time we took her there though," said Logan doubtfully. "I want to take her back but I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"She will not worry if there are friends there, that she knows."

"There would only be me, pal, and she really doesn't seem to like Gene."

"Only you? Bah. I will come with you, of course," said Remy.

"Who said you're coming?"

"I did. Just a moment ago."

"Who said you _CAN _come?" said Logan a little hotly, and Remy held up his hands in defense.

"I am sure I will not be a nuisance. If Magneto wants her for something, then likely it is something significant, yes? Another pair of hands will be useful. Plus - I am a friend of hers." They weren't specifically friends, but in the strange lives they led they were as close as two could be. She saved his life.

After a moment of deliberation, Logan shrugged. "Fine. But if it pisses anybody off, you're out on your ass; I don't want you alienating the team when we need to be welcoming somebody new."

"Do not worry, I do everything _but _alienate the ladies."

"Watch it, Frenchie."


End file.
